Democrats

The Senate is sitting on 78 of President Trump’s nominees who have already been passed out of committee but can’t get a floor vote. Chuck Schumer and his loyal band of Democrats accomplish this obstruction by objecting to unanimous consent that a nomination be taken up. This triggers a motion for cloture which brings with it 30 hours of floor debate. The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial denouncing the »

Dave Weigel reports on last week’s Democratic primary in Illinois’ third congressional district. The seat is held by Daniel Lipinski. He’s a pro-life Democrat and a moderate, at least in the eyes of progressives. TPM, the left-wing website, says Lipinski “has spent his career sticking his fingers in the eyes of progressives, vocally bucking his party on everything from abortion to Obamacare to gay rights.” The district encompasses much of »

The estimable Henry Olsen makes a good case that she, at a minimum, she is more likely to be the nominee than anyone else. He bases his case on the pattern that has prevailed in the Democratic party since 1984: A candidate appealing to educated, more liberal Democrats challenges a relatively more centrist rival favored by the party establishment; the progressive wins most primaries and caucuses in New England, the »

I want to note the death yesterday of former Georgia Governor and United States Senator Zell Miller. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution looks back on his life in “Zell Miller dies at 86.” I didn’t know much about Miller before his appointment as Senator in 2000 following the untimely death of Paul Coverdell that year, but I came to admire him greatly. Initially attracted by the authentic wit and literacy I found »

Every time you think our public life can’t sink any lower, our politicians surprise you by hitting new depths. Today it was Joe Biden, boasting to an audience in Miami that if he had known Donald Trump as a high school student, he would have beaten him up: “A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,'” Biden said »

In doing my usual scan of the morning’s news I thought I had spotted easily the dumbest headline of the day in the Washington Post: Talk about first world problems! But I underestimated the possibilities, because, to paraphrase Han Gruber in that greatest of all Christmas movies (Die Hard), ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hillary. Rodham. Clinton: Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is providing an explanation for controversial comments »

I knew Larry Tribe decades ago, when he coached the Harvard debate team and I debated for Dartmouth. We had a friendly relationship then, and also later when I took a course from him at Harvard Law School. The Larry Tribe I knew was a smart and normal guy. Today, unfortunately, he has gone off the rails. One could say that he personifies the descent of much of the Democratic »

For those of us who don’t view the 2018 midterm elections as near no-lose for Republicans, the result of last night’s special election in Pennsylvania has to be somewhat concerning. The Democrat and the Republican split the vote evenly in a Republican district that Donald Trump carried by 20 points. The Democrats’ strategy this year is straight from the 2006 playbook. In moderate and conservative jurisdictions, run candidates who pretend »

In his Wall Street Journal column last month, Jeryl Bier reported that Ellison and Farrakhan had a reunion of sorts in September 2013 with a follow-up meeting in Farrakhan’s hotel room when Farrakhan visited Washington in 2015. Ellison’s relationship with Farrakhan goes way back, but it turns out that Farrakhan has several fans in the Democrats’ Congressional Black Caucus as well. This long suppressed 2005 photograph of Farrakhan & Friends »

The Democrats are trying to make something out of Donald Trump’s alleged dalliance, twelve years ago, with porn performer Stormy Daniels. I wrote about it here. Frankly, I don’t think anyone cares. But the story is interesting because it raises questions about what, in our era, constitutes a scandal. Trump’s long-ago romps with Daniels–assuming the stories are true–don’t qualify. There is one person, of course, who has a right to »

In his Wall Street Journal column earlier this year, Jeryl Bier reported that Minnesota Fifth District Rep./Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman Keith Ellison and Nation of Islam Supreme Leader Louis Farrakhan had a reunion of sorts in September 2013 with a follow-up meeting in Farrakhan’s hotel room when Farrakhan visited Washington in 2015. I noted Ellison’s responses in “Ellison speaks…a little” and “Ellison speaks…a little more.” Ellison subsequently appeared as »

The Maryland Democratic party is setting aside half of certain elected positions for women. Men will be unable to run against women for these posts. Similarly, women won’t be able to run against men for the other half of the slots. The jobs in question are on Democratic “central committees,” regarded as a stepping stone for more important and prestigious elected positions. In Maryland, and elsewhere, women lag behind men »

In a sign of the times, the California Democratic Party has declined to endorse the state’s senior senator in her bid for reelection. In fact, Dianne Feinstein lost to her Democratic opponent in a vote at the state’s Democratic convention. Hard left-winger Kevin de Leon received 54 percent of the vote, compared to Feinstein’s 37 percent. De Leon fell short of the 60 percent support required to get the Party’s »

As I quickly read the Dems’ memo proclaiming that everything was beautiful in the counterintelligence investigation of Russian election interference, I was struck by its argumentative nature. It is not a trustworthy document. It plays fast and loose with facts and argument. It refutes claims the Nunes memo didn’t make. It liberally trashes Carter Page. It omits the testimony of Andrew McCabe on the critical role played by the Steele »

The Democrats’ media adjunct amplified a key Democratic talking point over the past two weeks. According to the Democrats and their media friends, one is not to criticize the bad actions of anyone in the FBI or other such agencies. If you do, you’re trashing law enforcement. Retroactive application of this rule to the depredations of President Obama and the Obama administration is prohibited. Mollie Hemingway collected a few exhibits »

There’s more good polling news for Republicans today — the best yet in this cycle. A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that the GOP has pulled, in effect, level with the Dems in the generic congressional poll. 39 percent of registered voters say they would support the GOP candidate for Congress in their district, while 38 percent would back the Democratic candidate. President Trump’s numbers have also improved dramatically, according to »

Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison is now the Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He’s not some inconsequential backbencher from flyover land. He embodies the alliance of radical Islam and the Democratic Party. He signifies. We’ve been covering him since he secured the DFL nomination to succeed 14-term incumbent Martin Sabo in the spring of 2006. For public purposes since then Ellison has denounced and disassociated himself from »